1.
Mopti Region
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Mopti is the fifth administrative region of Mali, covering 79,017 km2. Its capital is the city of Mopti, during the 2012 Northern Mali conflict, the frontier between Southern Mali which is controlled by the central government and the rebel-held North ran through Mopti Region. Mopti Region is bordered by Tombouctou Region to the north, Ségou Region to the southwest, the population in the 2009 census was 2,037,330. The region contains a number of groups including Bozo, Songhai, Dogon, Fulani, Malinke. The Niger River crosses the region, and is joined by the Bani, the region is separated into several areas, the Inland Niger Delta around Mopti, the Bandiagara cliffs and the plain of Bankass along the Burkina Faso frontier. Mount Hombori, the highest point in Mali at 1153 meters, is in the Mopti Region, in terms of its climate, Mopti Region is considered part of the Sahel. The largest towns of the region are Mopti, Sévaré, Djenné, Bandiagara, Bankass, an airport at Mopti provides air service for the region, while the Niger River provides transportation to Koulikoro and Ségou to the west and Tombouctou and Gao to the east. The region is well-irrigated and its agriculture is well-developed, with particularly successful fishing, Mopti serves as an important commercial crossroads between Malis north, south and bordering nations. Tourism is also well-developed, notably in the cities of Djenné and Mopti, though Moptis location, once a Bozo village named Sanga, had long been inhabited, rapid expansion began under Seku Amadus Massina Empire around 1820. Expansion continued under the Toucouleur Empire of El Hadj Umar Tall as well as the French colonial administration, the region is a melting pot, made up of various ethnic groups which live in harmony with one another. Common languages of the area include Bambara, Dogon, Songhai, Bozo, Fulani, both the city of Djenné and the Bandiagara Escarpment have been named World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. Mopti is divided into 8 Cercles encompassing 108 communes, Regions of Mali Cercles of Mali Official site for the Mopti Region, synthèse des 108 Plans Communaux de Sécurité Alimentaire de la Région de Mopti 2007-2011, Commissariat à la Sécurité Alimentaire, République du Mali, USAID-Mali,2007. This article was expanded from the corresponding article from the French Wikipedia
2.
Mali
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Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali is the eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of just over 1,240,000 square kilometres, the population of Mali is 14.5 million. The countrys economy centers on agriculture and fishing, some of Malis prominent natural resources include gold, being the third largest producer of gold in the African continent, and salt. About half the population lives below the poverty line of $1.25 a day. A majority of the population are Muslims, present-day Mali was once part of three West African empires that controlled trans-Saharan trade, the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire, and the Songhai Empire. During its golden age, there was a flourishing of mathematics, astronomy, literature, at its peak in 1300, the Mali Empire covered an area about twice the size of modern-day France and stretched to the west coast of Africa. In the late 19th century, during the Scramble for Africa, France seized control of Mali, French Sudan joined with Senegal in 1959, achieving independence in 1960 as the Mali Federation. Shortly thereafter, following Senegals withdrawal from the federation, the Sudanese Republic declared itself the independent Republic of Mali. After a long period of one-party rule, a coup in 1991 led to the writing of a new constitution and the establishment of Mali as a democratic, multi-party state. In January 2012, a conflict broke out in northern Mali, in which Tuareg rebels took control of by April and declared the secession of a new state. The conflict was complicated by a coup that took place in March. In response to Islamist territorial gains, the French military launched Opération Serval in January 2013, a month later, Malian and French forces recaptured most of the north. Presidential elections were held on 28 July 2013, with a second round held on 11 August. The name Mali is taken from the name of the Mali Empire, the name was originally derived from the Mandinka or Bambara word mali, meaning “hippopotamus”, but it eventually came to mean the place where the king lives. The word carries the connotation of strength, D. Niane suggests in Sundiata, An Epic of Old Mali that it is not impossible that Mali was the name given to one of the capitals of the emperors. 14th century Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta reported that the capital of the Mali Empire was indeed called Mali and this name could have formerly been that of a city. In old Mali there is one village called Malikoma which means “New Mali. ”Another theory suggests that Mali is a Fulani pronunciation of the name of the Mande peoples. It is suggested that a sound shift led to the change, whereby in Fulani the alveolar segment /nd/ shifts to /l/, Mali was once part of three famed West African empires which controlled trans-Saharan trade in gold, salt, slaves, and other precious commodities
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
Islam
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Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is only one and incomparable God and that Muhammad is the last messenger of God. It is the worlds second-largest religion and the major religion in the world, with over 1.7 billion followers or 23% of the global population. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and unique, and He has guided mankind through revealed scriptures, natural signs, and a line of prophets sealed by Muhammad. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the word of God. Muslims believe that Islam is the original, complete and universal version of a faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses. As for the Quran, Muslims consider it to be the unaltered, certain religious rites and customs are observed by the Muslims in their family and social life, while social responsibilities to parents, relatives, and neighbors have also been defined. Besides, the Quran and the sunnah of Muhammad prescribe a comprehensive body of moral guidelines for Muslims to be followed in their personal, social, political, Islam began in the early 7th century. Originating in Mecca, it spread in the Arabian Peninsula. The expansion of the Muslim world involved various caliphates and empires, traders, most Muslims are of one of two denominations, Sunni or Shia. Islam is the dominant religion in the Middle East, North Africa, sizable Muslim communities are also found in Horn of Africa, Europe, China, Russia, Mainland Southeast Asia, Philippines, Northern Borneo, Caucasus and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world, Islam is a verbal noun originating from the triliteral root s-l-m which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of wholeness, submission, safeness and peace. In a religious context it means voluntary submission to God, Islām is the verbal noun of Form IV of the root, and means submission or surrender. Muslim, the word for an adherent of Islam, is the active participle of the verb form. The word sometimes has connotations in its various occurrences in the Quran. In some verses, there is stress on the quality of Islam as a state, Whomsoever God desires to guide. Other verses connect Islām and dīn, Today, I have perfected your religion for you, I have completed My blessing upon you, still others describe Islam as an action of returning to God—more than just a verbal affirmation of faith. In the Hadith of Gabriel, islām is presented as one part of a triad that also includes imān, Islam was historically called Muhammadanism in Anglophone societies. This term has fallen out of use and is said to be offensive because it suggests that a human being rather than God is central to Muslims religion
5.
Architectural style
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An architectural style is characterized by the features that make a building or other structure notable or historically identifiable. A style may include such elements as form, method of construction, building materials, styles therefore emerge from the history of a society. They are documented in the subject of architectural history, at any time several styles may be fashionable, and when a style changes it usually does so gradually, as architects learn and adapt to new ideas. Styles often spread to places, so that the style at its source continues to develop in new ways while other countries follow with their own twist. A style may also spread through colonialism, either by foreign colonies learning from their home country, one example is the Spanish missions in California, brought by Spanish priests in the late 18th century and built in a unique style. After a style has gone out of fashion, revivals and re-interpretations may occur, for instance, classicism has been revived many times and found new life as neoclassicism. Each time it is revived, it is different, the Spanish mission style was revived 100 years later as the Mission Revival, and that soon evolved into the Spanish Colonial Revival. Vernacular architecture works slightly differently and is listed separately and it is the native method of construction used by local people, usually using labour-intensive methods and local materials, and usually for small structures such as rural cottages. It varies from region to region even within a country, as western society has developed, vernacular styles have mostly become outmoded due to new technology and to national building standards. Paul Jacobsthal and Josef Strzygowski are among the art historians who followed Riegl in proposing grand schemes tracing the transmission of elements of styles across great ranges in time and this type of art history is also known as formalism, or the study of forms or shapes in art. Terms originated to describe architectural periods were often applied to other areas of the visual arts, and then more widely still to music, literature. In architecture stylistic change often follows, and is possible by. While many architectural styles explore harmonious ideals, Mannerism wants to take style a step further and explores the aesthetics of hyperbole, Mannerism is notable for its intellectual sophistication as well as its artificial qualities. Mannerism favours compositional tension and instability rather than balance and clarity, the definition of Mannerism, and the phases within it, continues to be the subject of debate among art historians. An example of mannerist architecture is the Villa Farnese at Caprarola. in the country side outside of Rome. The proliferation of engravers during the 16th century spread Mannerist styles more quickly than any previous styles, a center of Mannerist design was Antwerp during its 16th-century boom. Through Antwerp, Renaissance and Mannerist styles were introduced in England, Germany. During the Mannerist Renaissance period, architects experimented with using architectural forms to emphasize solid, the Renaissance ideal of harmony gave way to freer and more imaginative rhythms
6.
Sudano-Sahelian architecture
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This style is characterized by the use of mudbricks and adobe plaster, with large wooden-log support beams that jut out from the wall face for large buildings such as mosques or palaces. These beams also act as scaffolding for reworking, which is done at regular intervals, the earliest examples of Sudano-Sahelian style probably come from Jenné-Jeno around 250 BC, where the first evidence of permanent mudbrick architecture in the region is found. The earthen architecture in the Sahel zone region is different from the building style in the neighboring savannah. The old Sudanese cultivators of the savannah built their compounds out of several cone-roofed houses and this was primarily an urban building style, associated with centres of trade and wealth, characterised by cubic buildings with terraced roofs comprise the typical style. They lend a characteristic appearance to the villages and cities. Large buildings such as mosques, representative residential and youth houses stand out in the distance and they are landmarks in a flat landscape that point to a complex society of farmers, craftsmen and merchants with a religious and political upper class. The Sudano-Sahelian architectural style itself can be broken down into four smaller sub-styles that are typical of different ethnic groups in the region, the examples used here illustrate the construction of mosques as well as palaces, as the architectural style is concentrated around inland Muslim populations. As with the people, many of these styles cross-pollinate and produce buildings with shared features, any one of these styles is not exclusive to one particular modern countries borders, but are linked to the ethnicity of its builders or surrounding populations. For example, a Malian migrant community in traditionally Gur area may build in the characteristic of their ancestral homeland. These styles include, Malian - of the various Manden groups of southern, characterized by the Great Mosque of Djenne and the Kani-Kombole Mosque of Mali. Military aspect to construction of high protective compound walls built around a central courtyard, minaret is the only structure with support beams showing. Characterized by the Sankore Mosque of Timbuktu, the tomb of Askia in Gao Mali, characterised by its attention of stucco detail in abstract design and extensive use of parapets. Examples in the architecture of the Yamma Mosque and old town of Zinder, The Hausa quarter of Agadez Niger, the Gidan Rumfa of Kano, volta basin - of the Gur and Manden groups of Burkina Faso, northern Ghana and northern Cote dIvoire. The most conservative of the three styles, a single courtyard, characterized by high white and black painted walls, inward curved turrets supporting an exterior wall, and a larger turret nearer the center. Characterized by the Larabanga mosque of Ghana and the Bobo-Dioulasso Grand Mosque, Sankore University Larabanga Agadez Great Mosque of Djenné Aradeon, Suzan B. Al-Sahili, the myth of architectural technology transfer from North Africa, Journal des Africanistes,59, 99–131. Bourgeois, Jean-Louis, Pelos, Carollee, Davidson, Basil, Spectacular vernacular, prussin, Labelle, Hatumere, Islamic design in West Africa, Berkeley, University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-03004-4. Schutyser, S. Dethier, J. Gruner, D. Banco, Adobe Mosques of the Inner Niger Delta, Milan,5 Continents Editions, ISBN 88-7439-051-3
7.
Minaret
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A minaret, from Arabic, منارة manāra, lit. lighthouse, also known as Goldaste, is a distinctive architectural structure akin to a tower and typically found adjacent to mosques. Generally a tall spire with a conical or onion-shaped crown, usually either free-standing or taller than associated support structure, the basic form of a minaret includes a base, shaft, and gallery. Styles vary regionally and by period, minarets provide a visual focal point and are traditionally used for the Muslim call to prayer. The purpose of minarets in traditional Eastern region architecture is to serve as a system for a building in very hot climates. That buildings of middle eastern origins have such outstanding features is architecturally intentional, however in modern times, with the invention of the modern air conditioners, the purpose of minarets has changed to traditional symbol. The minaret would be equipped with a speaker that would call people to prayers in Muslim countries. In addition to providing a visual cue to a Muslim community, the call to prayer is issued five times each day, dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and night. In most modern mosques, the adhān is called from the musallah via microphone to a system on the minaret. Around 80 years after Muhammads death, the first known minarets appeared, minarets have been described as the gate from heaven and earth, and as the Arabic language letter aleph. The massive minaret of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia is the oldest standing minaret and its construction began during the first third of the 8th century and was completed in 836 CE. The imposing square-plan tower consists of three sections of decreasing size reaching 31.5 meters, considered as the prototype for minarets of the western Islamic world, it served as a model for many later minarets. The tallest minaret, at 210 metres is located at the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, the tallest brick minaret is Qutub Minar located in Delhi, India. In some of the oldest mosques, such as the Great Mosque of Damascus, the basic form of minarets consists of three parts, a base, shaft, and a gallery. For the base, the ground is excavated until a foundation is reached. Gravel and other supporting materials may be used as a foundation, minarets may be conical, square, cylindrical, or polygonal. Stairs circle the shaft in a fashion, providing necessary structural support to the highly elongated shaft. The gallery is a balcony that encircles the upper sections from which the muezzin may give the call to prayer, styles and architecture can vary widely according to region and time period. Here are a few styles and the localities from which they derive, Tunisia Quadrangular, turkish 1,2,4 or 6 minarets related to the size of the mosque
8.
Building material
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Building material is any material which is used for construction purposes. Many naturally occurring substances, such as clay, rocks, sand, apart from naturally occurring materials, many man-made products are in use, some more and some less synthetic. They provide the make-up of habitats and structures including homes and these trends tend to increase the initial and long term economic, ecological, energy, and social costs of building materials. The initial economic cost of building materials is the purchase price and this is often what governs decision making about what materials to use. Sometimes people take into consideration the energy savings or durability of the materials, for example, an asphalt shingle roof costs less than a metal roof to install, but the metal roof will last longer so the lifetime cost is less per year. Some materials may require more care than others, maintaining costs specific to some materials may also influence the final decision. Risks when considering lifetime cost of a material is if the building is damaged such as by fire or wind, the cost of materials should be taken into consideration to bear the risk to buy combustive materials to enlarge the lifetime. It is said that, if it must be done, it must be done well, pollution costs can be macro and micro. An example of the aspect of pollution is the off-gassing of the building materials in the building or indoor air pollution. Red List building materials are found to be harmful. Also the carbon footprint, the set of greenhouse gas emissions produced in the life of the material. A life-cycle analysis also includes the reuse, recycling, or disposal of construction waste, two concepts in building which account for the ecological economics of building materials are green building and sustainable development. Initial energy costs include the amount of energy consumed to produce, deliver, the long term energy cost is the economic, ecological, and social costs of continuing to produce and deliver energy to the building for its use, maintenance, and eventual removal. The initial embodied energy of a structure is the energy consumed to extract, manufacture, deliver, install, social costs are injury and health of the people producing and transporting the materials and potential health problems of the building occupants if there are problems with the building biology. Aspects of fair trade and labor rights are social costs of building material manufacturing. These were variously named wikiups, lean-tos, and so forth, an extension on the brush building idea is the wattle and daub process in which clay soils or dung, usually cow, are used to fill in and cover a woven brush structure. This gives the more thermal mass and strength. Wattle and daub is one of the oldest building techniques, many older timber frame buildings incorporate wattle and daub as non load bearing walls between the timber frames
9.
French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
10.
Arabic
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
11.
Adobe
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Adobe is a building material made from earth and often organic material. Adobe is among the earliest building materials, and is used throughout the world, modern methods of construction allow the pouring of whole adobe walls that are reinforced with steel. In dry climates, adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for some of the oldest existing buildings in the world. Adobe buildings offer significant advantages due to their greater thermal mass, cases where adobe structures were widely damaged during earthquakes include the 1976 Guatemala earthquake, the 2003 Bam earthquake and the 2010 Chile earthquake. Puebloan peoples built their structures with handfuls or basketfuls of adobe. Adobe bricks were used in Spain from the Late Bronze and Iron Ages and its wide use can be attributed to its simplicity of design and manufacture, and economics. A distinction is made between the smaller adobes, which are about the size of ordinary baked bricks, and the larger adobines. The word adobe /əˈdoʊbiː/ has existed for around 4000 years with little change in either pronunciation or meaning. The word can be traced from the Middle Egyptian word ɟbt mudbrick, Middle Egyptian evolved into Late Egyptian, Demotic or pre-Coptic, and finally to Coptic, where it appeared as τωωβε tōʾpə. This was borrowed into Arabic as الطوب aṭ-ṭawbu or aṭ-ṭūbu, with the definite article al- attached, tuba, English borrowed the word from Spanish in the early 18th century. In more modern English usage, the adobe has come to include a style of architecture popular in the desert climates of North America. An adobe brick is a material made of earth mixed with water. The soil composition typically contains sand, silt and clay, straw is useful in binding the brick together and allowing the brick to dry evenly, thereby preventing cracking due to uneven shrinkage rates through the brick. The most desirable soil texture for producing the mud of adobe is 15% clay, 10–30% silt, another source quotes 15–25% clay and the remainder sand and coarser particles up to cobbles 50 to 250 mm with no deleterious effect. Modern adobe is stabilized with either emulsified asphalt or Portland cement up to 10% by weight, no more than half the clay content should be expansive clays with the remainder non-expansive illite or kaolinite. Too much expansive clay results in uneven drying through the resulting in cracking. Typically the soils of the Southwest United States, where construction is in use, are an adequate composition. Adobe walls are bearing, i. e. they carry their own weight into the foundation rather than by another structure
12.
Floodplain
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In other words, a floodplain is an area near a river or a stream which floods when the water level reaches flood stage. Flood plains are made by a meander eroding sideways as it travels downstream, when a river breaks its banks and floods, it leaves behind layers of alluvium. These gradually build up to create the floor of the flood plain, floodplains generally contain unconsolidated sediments, often extending below the bed of the stream. These are accumulations of sand, gravel, loam, silt, and/or clay, and are often important aquifers, geologically ancient floodplains are often represented in the landscape by fluvial terraces. These are old floodplains that remain relatively high above the present floodplain and it is probable that any section of such an alluvial plain would show deposits of a similar character. The floodplain during its formation is marked by meandering or anastomotic streams, oxbow lakes and bayous, marshes or stagnant pools, and is occasionally completely covered with water. When the drainage system has ceased to act or is diverted for any reason. The floodplain differs, however, because it is not altogether flat and it has a gentle slope downstream, and often, for a distance, from the side towards the center. The floodplain is the place for a river to dissipate its energy. Meanders form over the floodplain to slow down the flow of water, in terms of flood management the upper part of the floodplain is crucial as this is where the flood water control starts. Artificial canalisation of the river here will have a impact on wider flooding. This is the basis of flood management. Floodplains can support particularly rich ecosystems, both in quantity and diversity, tugay forests form an ecosystem associated with floodplains, especially in Central Asia. They are a category of riparian zones or systems, a floodplain can contain 100 or even 1,000 times as many species as a river. Microscopic organisms thrive and larger species enter a rapid breeding cycle, opportunistic feeders move in to take advantage. The production of nutrients peaks and falls away quickly, however the surge of new growth endures for some time and this makes floodplains particularly valuable for agriculture. River flow rates are undergoing change following suit with climate change and this change is a threat to the riparian zones and other flood plain forests. These forests have over time synced their seedling deposits after the peaks in flow to best take advantage of the nutrient rich soil generated by peak flow
13.
Bani River
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The Bani River is the principal tributary of the Niger River in Mali. The river is formed from the confluence of the Baoulé and Bagoé rivers some 160 km east of Bamako and its length is about 1,100 km. The drainage basin upstream of Douna has an area of 102,000 km2, 85% of which lies in southern Mali and 15% in northern Côte dIvoire. The annual rainfall varies across the catchment basin with the area in Côte dIvoire receiving 1,500 mm a year while the northern area around Douna receiving only 700 mm. For the period 1965-1995 the average rainfall for the basin was 1,100 mm. The rainfall is seasonal with most of the rain falling between May and October, the maximum rainfall occurs in August. The discharge of the Bani River is also seasonal, with the maximum flow occurring at the end of September. The river enters the Inland Niger Delta north of San and after the rains the river floods. There is a significant inter-annual variation in the rainfall and, as a consequence, the reduction in the flow of the river was much greater than the reduction in the rainfall. The average rainfall for 1981-1989 was 20% less than for 1961-1970 while the discharge of the river was reduced by 75%, the effect of the reduced rainfall was less extreme for other tributaries of the Niger. Because of the accumulated deficit, even in a year with high rainfall. In 2006 the Talo Dam was constructed to irrigate parts of the floodplain to the south of the river near the town of San. Prior to the construction of the dam, these areas were only fully flooded in wet years. The dam is located 43 km west of San,66 km downstream of Douna and 110 km upstream of Djenné, the dam acts as a weir in that water can flow over the top of the retaining wall. The construction of the dam was highly controversial, the environmental impact assessment commissioned by the African Development Bank was criticised for not fully taking into account the hydrological impact downstream of the dam. The retaining wall is 5 m high and 295 m in length and this volume represents 1. 3% of the average annual discharge of the river (over the period 1952-2002 the average discharge was 13.4 km3. A downstream flow of 10 m3 /s can be maintained during the dry season by opening a sluice gate. From the published information it is unclear how much of the discharge will be diverted for irrigation and, of the diverted water
14.
World Heritage Site
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A World Heritage Site is a landmark which has been officially recognized by the United Nations, specifically by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Sites are selected on the basis of having cultural, historical, scientific or some form of significance. UNESCO regards these sites as being important to the interests of humanity. The programme catalogues, names, and conserves sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common culture, under certain conditions, listed sites can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund. The program was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of the Worlds Cultural and Natural Heritage, since then,192 state parties have ratified the convention, making it one of the most adhered to international instruments. As of July 2016,1052 sites are listed,814 cultural,203 natural, in 1959, the governments of Egypt and Sudan requested UNESCO to assist their countries to protect and rescue the endangered monuments and sites. In 1960, the Director-General of UNESCO launched an appeal to the Member States for an International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, the campaign, which ended in 1980, was considered a success. The project cost $80 million, about $40 million of which was collected from 50 countries, the projects success led to other safeguarding campaigns, saving Venice and its lagoon in Italy, the ruins of Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, and the Borobodur Temple Compounds in Indonesia. UNESCO then initiated, with the International Council on Monuments and Sites, the United States initiated the idea of cultural conservation with nature conservation. The International Union for Conservation of Nature developed similar proposals in 1968, the Convention came into force on 17 December 1975. As of June 2016, it has been ratified by 192 states, including 188 UN member states plus the Cook Islands, the Holy See, Niue, a country must first list its significant cultural and natural sites, the result is called the Tentative List. A country may not nominate sites that have not been first included on the Tentative List, next, it can place sites selected from that list into a Nomination File. The Nomination File is evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites and these bodies then make their recommendations to the World Heritage Committee. There are ten selection criteria – a site must meet at least one of them to be included on the list, up to 2004, there were six criteria for cultural heritage and four criteria for natural heritage. In 2005, this was modified so there is now only one set of ten criteria. Nominated sites must be of outstanding value and meet at least one of the ten criteria. Thus, the Geneva Convention treaty promulgates, Article 53, PROTECTION OF CULTURAL OBJECTS AND OF PLACES OF WORSHIP. There are 1,052 World Heritage Sites located in 165 States Party, of these,814 are cultural,203 are natural and 35 are mixed properties
15.
Fula people
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The Fula people or Fulani or Fulɓe, numbering between 20 and 25 million people in total, are one of the largest and a widely dispersed Muslim ethnic group in Sahel and West Africa. The Fula people are believed to have roots in the people from North Africa and the Middle East. As an ethnic group they are bound together by the Fula language, culture, history, their religious affiliation and their efforts to spread Islam in Sahel region and the West Africa. A significant proportion of the Fula – a third, or an estimated 7 to 8 million – are pastoral people, the majority of the Fula ethnic group consisted of semi-sedentary people, as well as sedentary settled farmers, artisans, merchants and nobility. Spread over many countries, they are mainly in West Africa and northern parts of Central Africa. Many Fulbe was also taken to the New World during 16th to 19th century Atlantic Slave Trade and they were largely captured from the Senegal and Guinea with a significant percentage also taken from Mali and Cameroon. Some of the Fulbe of note were Bilali Muhammad, Ayuba Diallo, Salih Bilali, Abdulrahman Ibrahim Ibn Sori, some of Bilali Muhammads known descendants still live on Salepo Island Georgia and he also left descendants in the Bahama Archipelago who are not known. Abdulrahman Ibrahim Ibn Sori and many others have many descendants in the USA, there are many names used in other languages to refer to the Fulɓe. Fulani in English is borrowed from the Hausa term, Fula, from Manding languages, is also used in English, and sometimes spelled Fulah or Fullah. Fula and Fulani are commonly used in English, including within Africa, the French borrowed the Wolof term Pël, which is variously spelled, Peul, Peulh, and even Peuhl. More recently the Fulfulde / Pulaar term Fulɓe, which is a noun has been Anglicised as Fulbe. In Portuguese, the terms Fula or Futafula are used, the terms Fallata Fallatah or Fellata are of Kanuri origins, and are often the ethnonyms by which Fulani people are identified by in Sudan. The Fula people are distributed, across the Sahel from the Atlantic coast to the Red Sea. Alongside, many speak other languages of the countries they inhabit. Such languages include Hausa, Bambara, Wolof, and Arabic and this is the area known as the Fombina, literally meaning The South in Adamawa Fulfulde, because it represented the most southern and eastern reaches of Fulɓe hegemonic dominance in West Africa. In this area, Fulfulde is the lingua franca. Further east of this area, Fulani communities become predominantly nomadic, the Fulani People occupy a vast geographical expanse located roughly in a longitudinal East-West band immediately south of the Sahara, and just north of the coastal rain forest and swamps. There are an estimated 20-25 million Fulani people, there are generally three different types of Fulani based on settlement patterns, viz, the Nomadic/Pastoral or Mbororo, The Semi-Nomadic and the Settled or Town Fulani
16.
Louis Archinard
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Louis Archinard was a French Army general at the time of the Third Republic, who contributed to the colonial conquest of French West Africa. He was traditionally presented in French histories as the conqueror and Pacifier of French Soudan, archinards campaigns brought about the end of the Tukulor Empire. He also spent an amount of energy fighting Samory Toure. In 1897 Archinard was reassigned to French Indochina, in World War I, he commanded in August 1914 the 1er Group of Reserve Divisions, and in 1917-1918 the Polish Legion in France. Légion dhonneur Knight Officer Commander Grand Officer Grand Cross Médaille militaire Croix de guerre 1914-1918 Médaille Interalliée 1914–1918 Commemorative medal of the 1870–1871 War, Médaille commémorative de la guerre 1914–1918 Médaille Coloniale with Soudan bar. The Total Conquest of the Sudan, 1888-93, historical Dictionary of Guinea, p.18 Works by or about Louis Archinard at Internet Archive
17.
Timbuktu
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The town is the capital of the Timbuktu Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali. It had a population of 54,453 in the 2009 census, starting out as a seasonal settlement, Timbuktu became a permanent settlement early in the 12th century. After a shift in trading routes, Timbuktu flourished from the trade in salt, gold, ivory and it became part of the Mali Empire early in the 14th century. In the first half of the 15th century the Tuareg tribes took control of the city for a period until the expanding Songhai Empire absorbed the city in 1468. A Moroccan army defeated the Songhai in 1591, and made Timbuktu, rather than Gao, the invaders established a new ruling class, the Arma, who after 1612 became virtually independent of Morocco. However, the age of the city, during which it was a major learning and cultural center of the Mali empire, was over. Different tribes governed until the French took over in 1893, a situation that lasted until it became part of the current Republic of Mali in 1960, presently, Timbuktu is impoverished and suffers from desertification. Several notable historic writers, such as Shabeni and Leo Africanus, have described Timbuktu and these stories fueled speculation in Europe, where the citys reputation shifted from being extremely rich to being mysterious. This reputation overshadows the town itself in times, to the point where it is best known in Western culture as an expression for a distant or outlandish place. French spelling often appears in reference as Tombouctou. As well as its spelling, Timbuktus toponymy is still open to discussion, the word itself consisted of two parts, tin and butu. Africanus did not explain the meaning of this Butu, Heinrich Barth wrote, The town was probably so called, because it was built originally in a hollow or cavity in the sand-hills. Tùmbutu means hole or womb in the Songhay language, if it were a Temáshight word, the name is generally interpreted by Europeans as well of Buktu, but tin has nothing to do with well. Hence, Timbuktu would mean place covered by small dunes, looking after their belongings was a slave woman of theirs called Tinbuktu, which in their language means lump. The blessed spot where she encamped was named after her, the French Orientalist René Basset forwarded another theory, the name derives from the Zenaga root b-k-t, meaning to be distant or hidden, and the feminine possessive particle tin. The meaning hidden could point to the location in a slight hollow. Without consensus, the etymology of Timbuktu remains unclear, like other important Medieval West African towns such as Djenné, Gao, and Dia, Iron Age settlements have been discovered near Timbuktu that predate the traditional foundation date of the town. A survey of the area by Susan and Roderick McIntosh in 1984 identified several Iron Age sites along the el-Ahmar, an ancient wadi system that passes a few kilometres to the east of the modern town
18.
Qibla
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The Qibla, also transliterated as Qiblah, Qibleh, Kiblah, Kıble or Kibla, is the direction that should be faced when a Muslim prays during salah prayers. It is fixed as the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca, most mosques contain a wall niche, known as mihrab, that indicates the Qiblah. Most multifaith prayer rooms will also contain a Qibla, although usually less standardized in appearance than one would find within a mosque, Muslims all praying towards the same point is traditionally considered to symbolize the unity of the Ummah, or all Muslims worldwide, under Sharia. The Qiblah has importance beyond salaat and plays a part in various ceremonies, the head of an animal that is slaughtered using halal methods is usually aligned with the Qiblah. After death, Muslims are usually buried with the body at angles to the Qibla. Thus, archaeology can indicate an Islamic necropolis if no signs are present. According to the traditional Muslim view, the Qiblah originally faced the Noble Sanctuary in Jerusalem and this Qiblah was used for over 13 years, from 610 CE until 623 CE. Seventeen months after the Islamic prophet Muhammads 622 CE arrival in Medina – the date is given as 11 February 624 – the Qiblah became oriented towards the Kaaba in Mecca. According to traditional accounts from Muhammads companions, the change happened very suddenly during the prayer in Medina. Muhammad was leading the prayer when he received revelations from God instructing him to take the Kaaba as the Qiblah, there is also disagreement as to when the practice started and for how long it lasted. Some sources say the Jerusalem Qiblah was used for a period of sixteen and eighteen months. The Jewish custom of facing Jerusalem for prayer may have influenced the Muslim Qiblah, others surmise that the use of Jerusalem as the direction of prayer was to either induce the Jews of Medina to convert to Islam or to win over their hearts. When relations with the Jews soured, Muhammad changed the Qiblah towards Mecca, another reason given why the Qiblah was changed is that Jews viewed the use of Jerusalem as signalling the Muslims intention of joining their religion. It was changed to discredit this assumption, others state that it was changed because Muhammad was angered by that city or its people, and not because of his conflict with the Jews. In Medieval times, Muslims travelling abroad used an astrolabe to find the Qiblah, cheraman Juma Masjid is a mosque in the south Indian state of Kerala. Believed to be built in 7th century CE by Malik Bin Deenar, it is thought to be the oldest mosque in India, and it was constructed during the lifetime of Muhammad, and the bodies of some of his original followers are said to be buried there. Unlike other mosques in Kerala state, which face westwards, this mosque faces eastwards, from whencesoever Thou startest forth, turn Thy face in the direction of the sacred Mosque, that is indeed the truth from the Lord. And Allah is not unmindful of what ye do, such are the people of truth, the Allah-fearing
19.
Imam
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Imam is the name of an Islamic leadership position. It is most commonly used as the title of a leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, serve as community leaders, the Sunni branch of Islam does not have imams in the same sense as the Shia, an important distinction often overlooked by those outside of the Islamic faith. Friday sermon is most often given by an appointed imam, all mosques have an imam to lead the prayers, even though it may sometimes just be a member from the gathered congregation rather than an officially appointed salaried person. Women imams may only lead amongst female-only congregations, the person that should be chosen, according to Hadith, is one who has most knowledge of the Quran and Sunnah and is of good character, the age being irrelevant. The term is used for a recognized religious scholar or authority in Islam, often for the founding scholars of the four Sunni madhhabs. It may also refer to the Muslim scholars who created the analytical sciences related to Hadith or it may refer to the heads of the Prophet Muhammads family in their generational times, Imams have a meaning more central to belief, referring to leaders of the community. Twelver and Ismaili Shia believe that these imams are chosen by God to be perfect examples for the faithful and they also believe that all the imams chosen are free from committing any sin, impeccability which is called ismah. These leaders must be followed since they are appointed by God, here follows a list of the Twelvers imams, Fatimah, also Fatimah al-Zahraa, daughter of Muhammed, is also considered infallible but not an Imam. Shia believe that the last Imam will one day return, see Imamah and List of Ismaili imams for Ismaili imams. At times, imams have held both secular and religious authority and this was the case in Oman among the Kharijite or Ibadi sects. At times, the imams were elected, at other times the position was inherited, as with the Yaruba dynasty from 1624 and 1742. The Imamate of Futa Jallon was a Fulani state in West Africa where secular power alternated between two lines of hereditary Imams, or almami, in the Zaidi Shiite sect, imams were secular as well as spiritual leaders who held power in Yemen for more than a thousand years. In 897, a Zaidi ruler, al-Hadi ilal-Haqq Yahya, founded a line of such imams, ruhollah Khomeini and his successor Ali Khamenei are officially referred to as Imams in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Several Iranian places and institutions are named Imam Khomeini, including a city, an airport, a hospital. Women as imams Mufti Encyclopædia Britannica Online, center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University. Encyclopaedia of Islam and the Muslim world, vol.1, encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. Translated by Sherrard, Liadain, Sherrard, Philip, london, Kegan Paul International in association with Islamic Publications for The Institute of Ismaili Studies
20.
Loudspeaker
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A loudspeaker is an electroacoustic transducer, which converts an electrical audio signal into a corresponding sound. The most widely used type of speaker in the 2010s is the speaker, invented in 1925 by Edward W. Kellogg. The dynamic speaker operates on the basic principle as a dynamic microphone. Besides this most common method, there are several technologies that can be used to convert an electrical signal into sound. The sound source must be amplified or strengthened with a power amplifier before the signal is sent to the speaker. Speakers are typically housed in an enclosure or speaker cabinet which is often a rectangular or square box made of wood or sometimes plastic. The enclosures materials and design play an important role in the quality of the sound, where high fidelity reproduction of sound is required, multiple loudspeaker transducers are often mounted in the same enclosure, each reproducing a part of the audible frequency range. In this case the individual speakers are referred to as drivers, drivers made for reproducing high audio frequencies are called tweeters, those for middle frequencies are called mid-range drivers, and those for low frequencies are called woofers. Smaller loudspeakers are found in such as radios, televisions, portable audio players, computers. Larger loudspeaker systems are used for music, sound reinforcement in theatres and concerts, the term loudspeaker may refer to individual transducers or to complete speaker systems consisting of an enclosure including one or more drivers. To adequately reproduce a range of frequencies with even coverage, most loudspeaker systems employ more than one driver. Individual drivers are used to different frequency ranges. The drivers are named subwoofers, woofers, mid-range speakers, tweeters, the terms for different speaker drivers differ, depending on the application. In two-way systems there is no mid-range driver, so the task of reproducing the mid-range sounds falls upon the woofer and tweeter, home stereos use the designation tweeter for the high frequency driver, while professional concert systems may designate them as HF or highs. When multiple drivers are used in a system, a network, called a crossover. Loudspeaker driver of the type pictured are termed dynamic to distinguish them from earlier drivers, or speakers using piezoelectric or electrostatic systems, or any of several other sorts. Johann Philipp Reis installed an electric loudspeaker in his telephone in 1861, it was capable of reproducing clear tones, alexander Graham Bell patented his first electric loudspeaker as part of his telephone in 1876, which was followed in 1877 by an improved version from Ernst Siemens. In 1898, Horace Short patented a design for a loudspeaker driven by compressed air, he sold the rights to Charles Parsons
21.
Historic preservation
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The term tends to refer specifically to the preservation of the built environment, and not to preservation of, for example, primeval forests or wilderness. In England, antiquarian interests were a familiar gentlemans pursuit since the mid 17th century, Fellows of the Royal Society were often also Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries. Another early preservation event also occurred at Berkhamsted, in 1866, Lord Brownlow who lived at Ashridge, tried to enclose the adjoining Berkhamsted Common with 5-foot steel fences in an attempt to claim it as part of his estate. In England from early Anglo-Saxon times, Common land was an area of land which the community could use as a resource. Across England between 1660 and 1845,7 million acres of Common land had been enclosed by land owners by application to parliament. In 1870, Sir Robert Hunter and the Commons Preservation Society succeed in legal action that ensured protection of Berkhamsted Common, in 1926 the common was acquired by the National Trust. By the mid 19th century, much of Britains unprotected cultural heritage was being slowly destroyed, even well-meaning archaeologists like William Greenwell excavated sites with virtually no attempt at their preservation, Stonehenge came under increasing threat by the 1870s. Tourists were chipping off parts of the stones or carving their initials into the rock, the private owners of the monument decided to sell the land to the London and South-Western Railway as the monument was not the slightest use to anyone now. John Lubbock, an MP and botanist emerged as the champion of the national heritage. Soon, he began campaigning in Parliament for legislation to protect monuments from destruction and this finally led to the legislative milestone under the Liberal government of William Gladstone of the Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882. The first government appointed inspector for this job was the archaeologist Augustus Pitt-Rivers, the Act only covered ancient monuments and explicitly did not cover historic buildings or structures. The Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882 had only given legal protection to prehistoric sites, the Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1900 took this further by empowering the governments Commissioners of Work and local County Councils to protect a wider range of properties. Further updates were made in 1910, Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire, a medieval manor house had been put up for sale in 1910 with its greatest treasures, the huge medieval fireplaces, still intact. However, when an American bought the house they were ripped out, the former viceroy of India, George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, was outraged at this cultural destruction and stepped in to buy back the castle and reinstall the fireplaces. After a nationwide hunt for them they were found in London. He restored the castle and left it to the National Trust on his death in 1925 and his experience at Tattershall influenced Lord Curzon to push for tougher heritage protection laws in Britain, which saw passage as the Ancient Monuments Consolidation and Amendment Act 1913. The new structure involved the creation of the Ancient Monuments Board to oversee the protection of such monuments, powers were given for the board, with Parliamentary approval, to issue preservation orders to protect monuments, and extended the public right of access to these. The term monument was extended to include the lands around it, the National Trust was founded in 1894 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Canon Rawnsley as the first organisation of its type in the world
22.
Vogue (magazine)
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Vogue is an American fashion and lifestyle magazine made up of many components including fashion, beauty, culture, living, and runway. Vogue began as a newspaper in 1892 in the United States. The British Vogue was the first international edition launched in 1916, Turnures intention was to create a publication that celebrated the ceremonial side of life, one that attracts the sage as well as debutante, men of affairs as well as the belle. From its inception, the magazine targeted the new New York upper class, the magazine at this time was primarily concerned with fashion, with coverage of sports and social affairs included for its male readership. Despite the magazines content, it very slowly during this period. Condé Montrose Nast purchased Vogue in 1905 one year before Turnures death and he changed it to a bi-weekly magazine and started Vogue overseas in the 1910s. Under Nast, the magazine shifted its focus to women. The magazines number of publications and profit increased dramatically under Nasts management, by 1911, the Vogue brand had garnered a reputation that it continues to maintain, targeting an elite audience and expanding into the coverage of weddings. According to Condé Naste Russia, after the First World War made deliveries in the Old World impossible, the decision to print in England proved to be successful causing Nast to release the first issue of French Vogue in 1920. The magazines number of subscriptions surged during the Great Depression, during this time, noted critic and former Vanity Fair editor Frank Crowninshield served as its editor, having been moved over from Vanity Fair by publisher Condé Nast. In July of 1932, American Vogue placed its first color photograph on the cover of the magazine, the photograph was taken by photographer Edward Steichen and portrays a woman swimmer holding a beach ball in the air. Nast was responsible for introducing color printing and the two-page spread and he greatly impacted the magazine and turned it into a successful business and the womens magazine we recognize today and greatly increased the sales volumes until his death in 1942. Toward this end, Vogue extended coverage to include East Village boutiques such as Limbo on St, marks Place, as well as including features of downtown personalities such as Andy Warhols Superstar Jane Holzers favorite haunts. Vogue also continued making household names out of models, a practice continued with Suzy Parker, Twiggy, Jean Shrimpton, Lauren Hutton, Veruschka, Marisa Berenson, Penelope Tree. In 1973, Vogue became a monthly publication, under editor-in-chief Grace Mirabella, the magazine underwent extensive editorial and stylistic changes to respond to changes in the lifestyles of its target audience. Mirabella states that she was chosen to change Vogue because women werent interested in reading about or buying clothes that served no purpose in their changing lives and she was selected to make the magazine appeal to the the free, working, liberated woman of the seventies. She changed the magazine by adding text with interviews, arts coverage, when that type of stylihtic ceange f ell out of favor in the 1980s, Mirabella was brutally fired. Her take on it, For a magazine devoted to style, in July of 1988, after Vogue had began to lose ground to a three-year-old upstart Elle, Anna Wintour was named editor-in-chief
23.
Fashion show
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A fashion show is an event put on by a fashion designer to showcase their upcoming line of clothing during Fashion Week. Fashion shows debut season, particularly the Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter seasons. This is where the latest fashion trends are made, the two most influential fashion weeks are Paris Fashion Week and New York Fashion Week, which are both semiannual events. Also, the Milan, London, Sibiu and Berlin are of global importance, in a typical fashion show, models walk the catwalk dressed in the clothing created by the designer. The clothing is illuminated on the runway by the lighting, the order in which each model walks out wearing a specific outfit is usually planned in accordance to the statement that the designer wants to make about their collection. Occasionally, fashion shows take the form of installations, where the models are static, because the topic of fashion shows remains to find its historian, the earliest history of fashion shows remains obscure. In the 1800s, fashion parades periodically took place in Paris couture salons, American retailers imported the concept of the fashion show in the early 1900s. The first American fashion show took place in 1903 in the New York City store of the Ehrlich Brothers. By 1910, large department stores such as Wanamakers in New York City and these events showed couture gowns from Paris or the stores copies of them, they aimed to demonstrate the owners good taste and capture the attention of female shoppers. By the 1920s, retailers across the United States held fashion shows, often, these shows were theatrical, presented with narratives, and organized around a theme. These shows enjoyed huge popularity through mid-century, sometimes attracting thousands of customers and gawkers, in the 1970s and 1980s, American designers began to hold their own fashion shows in private spaces apart from such retailers. In the early 1990s, however, many in the world began to rethink this strategy. In response to these shows, the New York shows were centralized in Bryant Park during fashion week in late 1993, lately from the 2000s to today, fashion shows are usually also filmed and appear on specially assigned television channels or even in documentaries. In recent years, fashion shows have become increasingly elaborate for many of the top labels, during New York Fashion Week in 2014, designer Ralph Lauren presented his new Polo line for Spring 2015 in a water-screen projection in Manhattan’s Central Park. Technological progress has allowed a broader portion of the fashion industrys followers to experience shows. In 2010, London Fashion Week was the first fashion week to allow viewing of its shows through live streaming, live streaming of runway shows and mediated shows has now become commonplace. Tom Ford created a video with Lady Gaga for his Spring/Summer 2016 womens collection. Fashion Fashion week List of fashion events Fashion show lighting
24.
Sahara (2005 film)
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Sahara is a 2005 action-comedy adventure film directed by Breck Eisner that is based on the best-selling book of the same name by Clive Cussler. It stars Matthew McConaughey, Steve Zahn and Penélope Cruz and is an international co-production between the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany and the United States, Sahara was a box office bomb earning just $119 million worldwide, against a budget of $160 million. In 1865, the ironclad CSS Texas carried the last of the Confederacys treasury out of Richmond, Virginia, in present day, in Mali, a civil war is being fought between dictator General Kazim and Tuareg people. World Health Organization doctors Eva Rojas and Frank Hopper investigate a disease spreading across Mali, assassins accompanied by a corrupt Tuareg named Zakara attempt to murder Eva, but she is rescued by Dirk Pitt, from the National Underwater and Marine Agency, who was diving nearby. Dirks contact in Nigeria sells him a gold Confederate States of America coin found in the Niger River, believing this to be a clue to the long-lost Texas, Dirk borrows his boss Sandeckers yacht to search for the Texas. Accompanying Dirk are his partner Al Giordino and Rudi Gunn from NUMA and they give Eva and Hopper a ride, so that they can continue their investigation of the disease. Businessman Yves Massarde and dictator General Kazim try to stop the doctors from discovering the source of the disease, Kazim sends men to attack the yacht. Dirk, Al and Rudi survive the attack, but the yacht is destroyed and Eva, Rudi tries to leave the country to get help while Dirk and Al go to rescue the doctors. After rescuing Eva, they try to leave Mali, but are captured by the Tuareg, the Tuareg leader, Modibo, shows Eva his people dying from the same disease she was investigating. After analyzing the sample, Eva finds out that the water is contaminated with toxins. Al stumbles into a cave with a showing the ironclad Texas. Dirk believes that the Texas became stranded when the dried up after a storm. They follow the dry river bed and work their way to the border, on the way, they stumble upon a solar detoxification plant owned by Massarde, which is the source of the contamination. They discover that the contamination is being carried to the ocean and, if not stopped in time, in addition, they cannot get their government to intervene during a civil war in a sovereign country. Massarde captures the group, keeps Eva and sends Dirk and Al to Kazim, the duo escape but get stranded in the middle of the desert. They find the wreck of a plane and rebuild it into a land yacht, Dirk and Al enlist Modibos aid to return to the plant. To cover up the existence of the plant, Massarde decides to destroy it with explosives, fearing the plants destruction would make it impossible to stop the contamination, Al goes to remove the explosives while Dirk tries to stop Massarde. Dirk fights and kills Zakara after a fierce battle and he rescues Eva, but Massarde escapes to his helicopter
25.
Borassus aethiopum
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Borassus aethiopum is a species of Borassus palm from Africa. In English it is referred to as African fan palm, African palmyra palm, deleb palm, ron palm, toddy palm, black rhun palm. This palm also grows in northwest Madagascar and the Comoros, the typical form of Borassus aethiopum is a solitary palm to 25 metres in height and 1 metre in diameter at the base. In the river bottoms of many East African rivers a closely related form can be up to seven feet thick at breast height and having the same thickness in its upper ventricosity. It also has a height of up to 100 feet The fan-shaped leaves are 3 metres wide with petioles 2 metres long, the margins are armed with spines. In male plants, the flowers are largely concealed within the scaly catkins. Each fruit contains 1-3 seeds, each enclosed within a woody endocarp, the floodplains variety is almost certainly the most massive of all palms. The tree has many uses, the fruit are edible, as are the roots produced by the young plant, fibres can be obtained from the leaves
26.
Mihrab
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Mihrab is a semicircular niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the qibla, that is, the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca and hence the direction that Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a mihrab appears is thus the qibla wall, Mihrabs should not be confused with the minbar, which is the raised platform from which an Imam addresses the congregation. The word is derived from the verb ḥariba, so miḥrāb would mean battlefield or place of fight. Some scholars have suggested that the word is from the Ethiopian mekʷerab, the word mihrab originally had a non-religious meaning and simply denoted a special room in a house, a throne room in a palace, for example. The Fath al-Bari, on the authority of others, suggests the mihrab is the most honorable location of kings and the master of locations, the front and the most honorable. The Mosques in Islam, in addition to Arabic sources, cites Theodor Nöldeke, the term was subsequently used by the Islamic prophet Muhammad to denote his own private prayer room. The room additionally provided access to the adjacent mosque, and the Prophet would enter the mosque through this room. This original meaning of mihrab – i. e. as a room in the house – continues to be preserved in some forms of Judaism where mihrabs are rooms used for private worship. In the Quran, the word refers to a sanctuary/place of worship. The sign was however just a sign on the wall, eventually, the niche came to be universally understood to identify the qibla wall, and so came to be adopted as a feature in other mosques. A sign was no longer necessary, the Quranic passage that refers to a mihrab – then he came forth to his people from the sanctuary/place of worship – is inscribed on or over some mihrabs. Today, Mihrabs vary in size, are usually ornately decorated, in exceptional cases, the mihrab does not follow the qibla direction. One example is the Mezquita of Córdoba, Spain that points south instead of southeast, among the proposed explanations, there is the localization of the ancient Roman cardo street besides the old temple the Mezquita was built upon. Another is the Masjid al-Qiblatayn, or the Mosque of the Two Qiblas and this is where the Prophet Muhammad received the command to change the direction of prayer from Jerusalem to Mecca, thus has two prayer niches. In the 21st Century the mosque was renovated, and the old prayer niche facing Jerusalem was removed, and the one facing Mecca was left
27.
Minbar
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A minbar is a pulpit in the mosque where the imam stands to deliver sermons or in the Hussainia where the speaker sits and lectures the congregation. The word is a derivative of the Arabic root n-b-r, the Arabic plural is manābir, the minbar, the decoration of which some believe to be part of the sunnah, is usually shaped like a small tower with a pointed roof and stairs leading up to it. In contrast, the prophet Muhammed used only a platform three steps. There may be a seat at the top, in contrast to most Christian pulpits, the steps up to the minbar are usually in a straight line on the same axis as the seat, as seen in those illustrated here. They also take the preacher higher above the congregation than is typical in churches, the minbar is located to the right of the mihrab, the niche that indicates the direction of prayer. The minbar is also a symbol of authority, in some mosques there is a platform opposite the minbar where the assistant of the Imam, the muezzin, stands during prayer. The muezzin recites the answers to the prayers of the Imam where applicable, the oldest Islamic pulpit in the world to be preserved intact is the minbar of the Great Mosque of Kairouan. Dating from the 9th century, it is a staircase made of carved and sculptured teak wood. Composed of an assembly of three hundred finely sculpted parts, this minbar is considered to be a jewel of Islamic wooden art. Reconstructing a Jewel of Islamic Art
28.
Erosion
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In earth science, erosion is the action of surface processes that remove soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earths crust, then transport it away to another location. Eroded sediment or solutes may be transported just a few millimetres, the rates at which such processes act control how fast a surface is eroded. Feedbacks are also possible between rates of erosion and the amount of eroded material that is carried by, for example. Processes of erosion that produce sediment or solutes from a place contrast with those of deposition, while erosion is a natural process, human activities have increased by 10-40 times the rate at which erosion is occurring globally. At well-known agriculture sites such as the Appalachian Mountains, intensive farming practices have caused erosion up to 100x the speed of the rate of erosion in the region. Excessive erosion causes both on-site and off-site problems, on-site impacts include decreases in agricultural productivity and ecological collapse, both because of loss of the nutrient-rich upper soil layers. In some cases, the end result is desertification. Off-site effects include sedimentation of waterways and eutrophication of bodies, as well as sediment-related damage to roads. Intensive agriculture, deforestation, roads, anthropogenic climate change and urban sprawl are amongst the most significant human activities in regard to their effect on stimulating erosion, however, there are many prevention and remediation practices that can curtail or limit erosion of vulnerable soils. Rainfall, and the surface runoff which may result from rainfall, produces four types of soil erosion, splash erosion, sheet erosion, rill erosion. Splash erosion is generally seen as the first and least severe stage in the erosion process. In splash erosion, the impact of a falling raindrop creates a crater in the soil. The distance these soil particles travel can be as much as 0.6 m vertically and 1.5 m horizontally on level ground. If the soil is saturated, or if the rate is greater than the rate at which water can infiltrate into the soil. If the runoff has sufficient flow energy, it will transport loosened soil particles down the slope, sheet erosion is the transport of loosened soil particles by overland flow. Rill erosion refers to the development of small, ephemeral concentrated flow paths which function as both sediment source and sediment delivery systems for erosion on hillslopes, generally, where water erosion rates on disturbed upland areas are greatest, rills are active. Flow depths in rills are typically of the order of a few centimetres or less and this means that rills exhibit hydraulic physics very different from water flowing through the deeper, wider channels of streams and rivers. Gully erosion occurs when water accumulates and rapidly flows in narrow channels during or immediately after heavy rains or melting snow
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Ditch
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A ditch is a small to moderate depression created to channel water. A ditch can be used for drainage, to water from low-lying areas, alongside roadways or fields. A trench is a narrow ditch. Ditches are commonly seen around farmland, especially in areas that have required drainage, such as The Fens in eastern England and much of the Netherlands. Roadside ditches may provide a hazard to motorists and cyclists, whose vehicles may crash into them and get damaged, flipped over or stuck, especially in weather conditions. In Anglo-Saxon, the word dïc already existed and was pronounced deek in northern England, the origins of the word lie in digging a trench and forming the upcast soil into a bank alongside it. This practice has meant that the name dïc was given to either the excavation or the bank, thus Offas Dyke is a combined structure and Car Dyke is a trench, though it once had raised banks as well. In the midlands and north of England, a dike is what a ditch is in the south, a property boundary marker or small drainage channel. Where it carries a stream, it may be called a dike as in Rippingale Running Dike. The Weir Dike is a dike in Bourne North Fen, near Twenty. Drainage ditches play major roles in agriculture throughout the world, improper drainage systems accelerate water contamination, excessively desiccate soils during seasonal drought, and become a financial burden to maintain. Industrial earth-moving equipment facilitates maintenance of straight drainage trenches, but entrenchment results in increasing environmental, sustainable channel design can result in ditches that are largely self-maintaining due to natural geomorphological equilibrium. Slowed net siltation and erosion result in net reduction in sediment transport, flooding can be a major cause of recurring crop loss—particularly in heavy soils—and can severely disrupt urban economies as well. However, excess drainage results in recurring drought induced crop yield losses, controlled subsurface drainage from sensitive areas to vegetated drainage ditches makes possible a better balance between water drainage and water retention needs. The initial investment allows a community to draw down local water tables when, particularly in Colorado, the term ditch is also applied to open aqueducts that traverse hillsides as part of transbasin diversion projects. Examples include the Grand Ditch over La Poudre Pass, the Berthoud Pass Ditch, black Beach, The Mucklands of Canastota, New York
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Ladder
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A ladder is a vertical or inclined set of rungs or steps. There are two types, rigid ladders that can be leaned against a surface such as a wall. The vertical members of a rigid ladder are called stringers or rails or stiles, rigid ladders are usually portable, but some types are permanently fixed to a structure, building, or equipment. They are commonly made of metal, wood, or fiberglass, Fixed ladder, two side members joined by several rungs, affixed to structure with no moving parts Folding ladder, a ladder in the step ladder style with one or more one-way hinges. Ideal for use on ground, as a trestle or when fully extended a Fixed ladder. They sometimes have an upper platform and a hand rail to assist in moving up. Step ladders have flat steps and a hinged back, henry Quackenbush patented the extension ladder in 1867. Rope ladders or Jacobs ladders are used where space is extremely limited, weight must be kept to a minimum. They may have rigid or flexible rungs, climbing a rope ladder requires more skill than climbing a rigid ladder, because the ladder tends to swing like a pendulum. Jacobs ladders used on a ship are used mostly for emergencies or for access to the side of a ship. Steel and aluminium wire ladders are used in vertical caving, having developed from rope ladders with wooden rungs. The most common injury made by ladder climbers is bruising from falling off a ladder, ladders can slip backwards owing to faulty base pads which usually fit into the ladder stiles. If badly worn, they can allow the aluminium to contact the ground rather than plastic or rubber, Ladder stabilizers are available that increase the ladders grip on the ground. One of the first ladder stabilizers or ladder feet was offered in 1936, a ladder standoff, or stay, is a device fitted to the top of a ladder to hold it away from the wall. This enables the ladder to clear overhanging obstacles, such as the eaves of a roof, footing occurs when another worker stands on the lowest rung and so provides much greater stability to the ladder when being used. The anchor point is usually a ring cemented into a slot in the wall to which the rungs of a ladder can be attached using rope for example. If a leaning ladder is placed at the angle, the risk of a fall is greatly increased. The safest angle for a ladder is 75. 5°, if it is too shallow, the bottom of the ladder is at risk of sliding, and if it is too steep, the ladder may fall backwards
31.
Racing
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In sport, racing is a competition of speed, against an objective criterion, usually a clock or to a specific point. The competitors in a try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific goal, a race may be run continuously from start to finish or may be made of several segments called heats, stages or legs. A heat is run over the same course at different times. A stage is a section of a much longer course or a time trial. Early records of races are evident on pottery from ancient Greece, a chariot race is described in Homers Iliad. The word race comes from a Norse word and this Norse word arrived in France during the invading of Normandy and gave the word raz which means swift water in Brittany, as in a mill race, it can be found in Pointe du Raz, and raz-de-marée. The word race to mean a contest of speed was first recorded in the 1510s, a race and its name are often associated with the place of origin, the means of transport and the distance of the race. As a couple of examples, see the Dakar Rally or the Athens Marathon. Running a distance is the most basic form of racing, but races may be conducted in vehicles, such as boats, cars, cycles and aircraft, or with animals such as horses or dogs. Races may also be conducted with other modes of such as skis, kicksled, skates or wheelchair. In a relay race members of a team take turns in racing parts of a circuit or performing a certain racing form, orienteering races add an additional task of using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain. A race can also involve any type of goal like eating. A common race involving eating is a hot dog eating race, Racing can also be done in more humoristic and entertaining ways such as the Sausage Race, the Red Bull Trolley Grand Prix and wok racing. Racing can be entertained from around the world, a sprint finish is a racing tactic used in many forms of racing where a competitor accelerates towards top speed in the final stages of a race. The tactic relies upon keeping greater energy reserves than your opponent until the last part of the race in order to be able to reach the finish point first and it is the opposing tactic to keeping a steady optimal pace throughout a race to maximise your energy efficiency. In track and field, distances from 1500 metres upwards often feature sprint finishes and they can also be found in cross country and road running events, even up to the marathon distance. A runners ability to sprint at the end of a race is known as their finishing kick
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France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
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Cement
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A cement is a binder, a substance used in construction that sets, hardens and adheres to other materials, binding them together. Cement is seldom used solely, but is used to bind sand, Cement is used with fine aggregate to produce mortar for masonry, or with sand and gravel aggregates to produce concrete. Non-hydraulic cement will not set in wet conditions or underwater, rather, it sets as it dries and it is resistant to attack by chemicals after setting. Hydraulic cements set and become adhesive due to a reaction between the dry ingredients and water. The chemical reaction results in mineral hydrates that are not very water-soluble and so are quite durable in water and this allows setting in wet condition or underwater and further protects the hardened material from chemical attack. The chemical process for hydraulic cement found by ancient Romans used volcanic ash with added lime, the word cement can be traced back to the Roman term opus caementicium, used to describe masonry resembling modern concrete that was made from crushed rock with burnt lime as binder. The volcanic ash and pulverized brick supplements that were added to the burnt lime, to obtain a hydraulic binder, were referred to as cementum, cimentum, cäment. In modern times, organic polymers are used as cements in concrete. Non-hydraulic cement, such as slaked lime, hardens by carbonation in the presence of carbon dioxide which is present in the air. The carbonation reaction requires the dry cement to be exposed to air and this whole process is called the lime cycle. Conversely, hydraulic cement hardens by hydration when water is added, Hydraulic cements are made of a mixture of silicates and oxides, the four main components being, Belite, Alite, Tricalcium aluminate, Brownmillerite. The chemistry of the above listed reactions is not completely clear and is still the object of research, Cement, chemically speaking, is a product that includes lime as the primary curing ingredient, but is far from the first material used for cementation. The Babylonians and Assyrians used bitumen to bind together burnt brick or alabaster slabs, in Egypt stone blocks were cemented together with a mortar made of sand and roughly burnt gypsum, which often contained calcium carbonate. Lime was used on Crete and by the ancient Greeks, there is evidence that the Minoans of Crete used crushed potshards as an artificial pozzolan for hydraulic cement. A kind of powder which from natural causes produces astonishing results and it is found in the neighborhood of Baiae and in the country belonging to the towns round about Mt. Vesuvius. This substance when mixed with lime and rubble not only lends strength to buildings of other kinds, the Greeks used volcanic tuff from the island of Thera as their pozzolan and the Romans used crushed volcanic ash with lime. This mixture was able to set under water increasing its resistance, the material was called pozzolana from the town of Pozzuoli, west of Naples where volcanic ash was extracted. In the absence of ash, the Romans used powdered brick or pottery as a substitute
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Senegalese Tirailleurs
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The Senegalese Tirailleurs were a corps of colonial infantry in the French Army. They were initially recruited from Senegal, French West Africa and subsequently throughout Western, Central and Eastern Africa, despite recruitment not being limited to Senegal, these infantry units took on the adjective sénégalais since that was where the first black African Tirailleur regiment had been formed. The first Senegalese Tirailleurs were formed in 1857 and served France in a number of wars, including World War I and World War II. Other tirailleur regiments were raised in French North Africa from the Arab and Berber populations of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, Tirailleur regiments were also raised in Indochina, they were called Vietnamese, Tonkinese or Annamites Tirailleurs. The formal decree for the formation of this force was signed on 21 July 1857 in Plombières-les-Bains by Napoleon III, recruitment was later extended to other French colonies in Africa. During its early years the corps included some former slaves bought from West African slave-owners as well as prisoners of war, subsequent recruitment was either by voluntary enlistment or on occasion by an arbitrary form of conscription. In the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War the Senegalese tirailleurs continued to provide the bulk of French garrisons in West, Regiments of tirailleurs malgache were subsequently recruited in Madagascar, using the Senegalese units as a model. In 1896 a small expedition consisting mainly of 200 tirailleurs sénégalais was assembled in Loango under Captain Jean-Baptiste Marchand and this Marchand Mission took two years to cross hundreds of miles of unexplored bush until they reached Fashoda on the Nile. Here they encountered British and Egyptian troops under Major-General Kitchener, who had just destroyed the Mahadis Dervish army near Khartoum. While the Fashoda Incident raised the possibility of war between France and Britain, tribute was paid to the courage and endurance of Marchand and his Senegalese tirailleurs by both sides. During the early 1900s the tirailleurs sénégalais saw active service in the French Congo and Chad, while continuing to provide garrisons for the French possessions in West and Central Africa. In 1908 two battalions of tirailleurs sénégalais landed at Casablanca to begin nearly twenty years of service in Morocco by Senegalese units. On 14 July 1913 the 1e regiment de tirailleurs sénégalais paraded their standard at Longchamp, new flags were presented to the 2e, 3e and 4e RTS at the same parade. There were 21 battalions of Tirailleurs Sénégalais in the French Army in August 1914, with the outbreak of war 37 battalions of French, North African and Senegalese infantry were transferred from Morocco to France. Five Senegalese battalions were soon serving on the Western Front, while others formed part of the reduced French garrison in Morocco. The 5th BTS formed part of a French column which was wiped out near Khenifra, during the Battle of El Herri on 13 November 1914, with 646 dead. The 10th, 13th, 16th and 21st BTS subsequently saw heavy fighting in Morocco, losses were particularly heavy in Flanders and Chemin des Mains. In 1915 seven battalions of Tirailleurs Sénégalais were amongst the 79,000 French troops sent to the Dardanelles, the Senegalese tirailleurs particularly distinguished themselves in the attack during the initial French landings on the southern shore of the Dardanelles
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French Army
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The French Army, officially the Land Army is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. Along with the French Air Force, the French Navy and the National Gendarmerie, the current Chief of Staff of the French Army is General Jean-Pierre Bosser, a direct subordinate of the Chief of the Defence Staff. All soldiers are considered professionals following the suspension of conscription, voted in parliament in 1997, as of 2014, the French Army employed 111,628 personnel. In addition, the element of the French Army consisted of 15,453 personnel of the Operational Reserve. The Kings of France needed reliable troops during and after the Hundred Years War and these units of troops were raised by issuing ordonnances to govern their length of service, composition and payment. These Compagnies dordonnance formed the core of the Gendarme Cavalry into the sixteenth century, stationed throughout France and summoned into larger armies as needed. There was also made for Francs-archers units of bowmen and foot soldiers raised from the non-noble classes. The bulk of the infantry for warfare was still provided by urban or provincial militias, raised from an area or city to fight locally and named for their recruiting grounds. Gradually these units became more permanent, and in 1480s Swiss instructors were recruited and these men would be paid and contracted and receive training. Henry II further regularised the French army by forming standing Infantry regiments to replace the Militia structure, the first of these the Régiments de Picardie, Piémont, Navarre and Champagne were called the Les Vieux Corps. It was normal policy to disband regiments after a war was over as a cost saving measure with the Vieux Corps and the Kings own Household Troops the Maison du Roi being the only survivors. Regiments could be raised directly by the King and so called after the region in which they were raised, or by the nobility and so called after the noble or his appointed colonel. In 1684 there was a reorganisation of the French infantry and again in 1701 to fit in with Louis XIVs plans. This reshuffle created many of the regiments of the French Army and standardised their equipment. The army of the Sun King tended to wear coats with coloured linings. There were exceptions and the troops, recruited from outside France. In addition to these regiments of the line the Maison du Roi provided several elite units, the Swiss Guards, French Guards, the revolution split the army with the main mass losing most of its officers to aristocratic flight or guillotine and becoming demoralised and ineffective. The French Guard joined the revolt and the Swiss Guards were massacred during the storming of the Tuileries palace, under Napoleon I, the French Army conquered most of Europe during the Napoleonic Wars
36.
Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
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Quran
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The Quran is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God. It is widely regarded as the finest work in classical Arabic literature, the Quran is divided into chapters, which are then divided into verses. The word Quran occurs some 70 times in the text of the Quran, although different names, according to the traditional narrative, several companions of Muhammad served as scribes and were responsible for writing down the revelations. Shortly after Muhammads death, the Quran was compiled by his companions who wrote down and these codices had differences that motivated the Caliph Uthman to establish a standard version now known as Uthmans codex, which is generally considered the archetype of the Quran known today. There are, however, variant readings, with minor differences in meaning. The Quran assumes familiarity with major narratives recounted in the Biblical scriptures and it summarizes some, dwells at length on others and, in some cases, presents alternative accounts and interpretations of events. The Quran describes itself as a book of guidance and it sometimes offers detailed accounts of specific historical events, and it often emphasizes the moral significance of an event over its narrative sequence. The Quran is used along with the hadith to interpret sharia law, during prayers, the Quran is recited only in Arabic. Someone who has memorized the entire Quran is called a hafiz, some Muslims read Quranic ayah with elocution, which is often called tajwid. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims typically complete the recitation of the whole Quran during tarawih prayers, in order to extrapolate the meaning of a particular Quranic verse, most Muslims rely on the tafsir. The word qurʼān appears about 70 times in the Quran itself and it is a verbal noun of the Arabic verb qaraʼa, meaning he read or he recited. The Syriac equivalent is qeryānā, which refers to reading or lesson. While some Western scholars consider the word to be derived from the Syriac, regardless, it had become an Arabic term by Muhammads lifetime. An important meaning of the word is the act of reciting, as reflected in an early Quranic passage, It is for Us to collect it, in other verses, the word refers to an individual passage recited. Its liturgical context is seen in a number of passages, for example, So when al-qurʼān is recited, listen to it, the word may also assume the meaning of a codified scripture when mentioned with other scriptures such as the Torah and Gospel. The term also has closely related synonyms that are employed throughout the Quran, each synonym possesses its own distinct meaning, but its use may converge with that of qurʼān in certain contexts. Such terms include kitāb, āyah, and sūrah, the latter two terms also denote units of revelation. In the large majority of contexts, usually with an article, the word is referred to as the revelation
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Madrasa
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Madrasa is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, whether secular or religious. The word is variously transliterated madrasah, medresa, madrassa, madraza, medrese, in the West, the word usually refers to a specific type of religious school or college for the study of the Islamic religion, though this may not be the only subject studied. In countries like India, not all students in madrasas are Muslims, the word madrasah derives from the triconsonantal Semitic root د-ر-س D-R-S to learn, study, through the wazn مفعل, mafʻal, meaning a place where something is done. Therefore, madrasah literally means a place where learning and studying take place, for example, in the Ottoman Empire during the Early Modern Period, madaris had lower schools and specialised schools where the students became known as danişmends. The usual Arabic word for a university, however, is جامعة, the Hebrew cognate midrasha also connotes the meaning of a place of learning, the related term midrash literally refers to study or learning, but has acquired mystical and religious connotations. However, in English, the term usually refers to the specifically Islamic institutions. A regular curriculum includes courses in Arabic, tafsir, sharīʻah, hadiths, mantiq, in the Ottoman Empire, during the Early Modern Period, the study of hadiths was introduced by Süleyman I. Depending on the demands, some madaris also offer additional advanced courses in Arabic literature, English and other foreign languages, as well as science. Ottoman madaris along with religious teachings also taught styles of writing, grammary, syntax, poetry, composition, natural sciences, political sciences, people of all ages attend, and many often move on to becoming imams. The certificate of an ʻālim, for example, requires approximately twelve years of study, a good number of the ḥuffāẓ are the product of the madaris. The madaris also resemble colleges, where people take evening classes, an important function of the madaris is to admit orphans and poor children in order to provide them with education and training. Madaris may enroll female students, however, they study separately from the men, the term Islamic education means education in the light of Islam itself, which is rooted in the teachings of the Quran - holy book of Muslims. Islamic education and Muslim education are not the same, because Islamic education has epistemological integration which is founded on Tawhid - Oneness or monotheism. The first institute of education was at the estate of Hazrat Zaid bin Arkam near a hill called Safa, where Hazrat Muhammad was the teacher. After Hijrah the madrasa of Suffa was established in Madina on the east side of the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi mosque, ubada ibn as-Samit was appointed there by Hazrat Muhammad as teacher and among the students. In the curriculum of the madrasa, there were teachings of The Quran, The Hadith, faraiz, tajweed, genealogy, treatises of first aid, there were also trainings of horse-riding, art of war, handwriting and calligraphy, athletics and martial arts. The first part of madrasa based education is estimated from the first day of nabuwwat to the first portion of the Umaiya caliphate and it was founded by Fāṭimah al-Fihrī, the daughter of a wealthy merchant named Muḥammad al-Fihrī. This was later followed by the establishment of al-Azhar in 959 in Cairo, niẓām al-Mulk, who would later be murdered by the Assassins, created a system of state madaris in various ʻAbbāsid cities at the end of the 11th century
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Aga Khan Trust for Culture
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It focuses on the revitalization of communities in the Muslim world—physical, social, cultural, and economic. The AKTC was founded in 1988 and is registered in Geneva, Switzerland, Aga Khan Award for Architecture is an architectural prize that recognizes architectural excellence in the Muslim world. Aga Khan Historic Cities Programme supports the revitalization of historic sites in the Muslim world, Aga Khan Music Initiative provides financial resources and technical assistance to support the preservation and promotion of professional oral tradition music in Central Asia and other regions. Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture is a center for the history, theory and practice of Islamic architecture at Harvard University. ArchNet is a website on architecture, urban design, urban development, museums and Exhibitions refers to museum and exhibition projects, including the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto. It also displays exhibitions of pieces from its collection and provides services for museums in the developing world. Aga Khan Trust for Culture Brochure, Aga Khan Trust for Culture Archives on ArchNet. org. Archived from the original on 15 November 2006
